Constant goodbyes are not easy for my kids, who had a very steady (and mostly uneventful) life until we moved here. It's also hard for those of us who are stuck here indefinitely. How many more sets of people will we meet and bid farewell while here? It never gets easier.
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| Jumping off the pier at Ferry Landing---all part of our goodbye rituals here. |
I occasionally have a hard time explaining to people that we are stuck here indefinitely. When you accept a job here as a DoD civilian, you generally have to go by the "five year rule." You can only work five years overseas, and then you have to go back to the States for two years before you can take another overseas job.
If you are military, you are typically here for two years. JTF people are almost always here for 9 months on an unaccompanied tour.
There are always exceptions to the rules, of course.
But teachers? We don't fit in any of these categories.
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| info from: http://www.dodea.edu/Offices/HR/employment/benefits/ |
The info above is from the DoDEA website and it is pitiful in its outdatedness and uselessness. There hasn't been a post in Iceland since 2008. Not only that, but you would think that Cuba is a one-year tour from this info. This is what many of us have to go by when we get here. The info above just means that after one year, we get a free ticket back to our Home of Record (HOR). I'm not well-versed in government talk, but I definitely didn't get that from the above when I read it the first, second, or tenth time.
Bottom line: come to Cuba as a teacher and you have to prepare to stay indefinitely.
The entire DoDDS system is built on uncertainty. It can either build patience or breed impatience, depending your disposition. I would love to say that I have become more patient, more introspective in the last almost-three years, but there are days that I would give anything to be the one on that ferry leaving and waving goodbye, instead of the one standing on the dock.
Our GTMO tradition is to jump off the pier for friends departing. As the ferry turns in front of the pier and picks up speed towards the airport, friends, coworkers, and neighbors jump and swim out towards the ferry. The first time I saw this, I was surprised that I teared up---it is a rather moving experience. Sometimes people decide last minute to jump and leap in the Bay wearing their work clothes. Other times, people wear funny outfits. I've jumped, waved, and even worn funny hats and sang songs in Spanish. Every goodbye is a little different.
Once the plane schedule was changed this past year from Saturday to Friday flights, that sadly left us with fewer opportunities to say goodbye (thanks to my J-O-B, I can't just walk out of the building and take 30 minutes to go to Ferry Landing) and even less opportunities to jump. Just making it to Ferry Landing to wave is now a big event for me.
Another part of the GTMO tradition is that if you jump off the pier, you will be the next one to leave.
In that time-honored tradition and in hopes that that legend has some element of truth, I'm encouraging my youngest to jump until his heart is content this summer. I have the flight schedule in hand and we will become part of the (un)official goodbye committee, jumping for EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT, if that is what it takes to bring us some good juju. I'm resolved that we are here indefinitely, but I'm not one for turning down good juju.
I have to admit, I don't see your point.... we left after eleven years, kicking and screaming every step of the way. Do to my disorganization and encouraging my children to suck every last second with their friends, we missed the ferry we were supposed to be on and Lori Lockwood and Maria Trias thought I'd run for the hills. Your son's experience is actually rather rare. My son graduated with his class this month (we transferred his Senior year back to the school he had attended since the last three months of Kindergarten) and he graduated with one child he had been in school with since his first day in GTMO; another child that had been there since first grade with him graduated early (in December) and a third had been there when my son was in Kinder, but left just after and returned a couple of years ago. Two other classmates had been in his classes since middle school Only one of the ten graduates was brand new.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you live in Paradise. Look around, enjoy all there is to offer. My Mom came back with us for the graduation and was just astounded at the number of people, a year after we moved, who greeted us, hugged us, hoped we were back 'for good' (from their mouths to God's ear). Not just co-workers, friends fo the children or fellow Parishoners, but cashiers at the NEX, lifegurads, waiters, waitresses and the gentleman who used to make our omelettes at Brunch and now made our Mongolian BBQ. The community is outstanding. When they start doing transfers regularly again you will have their chance. Meanwhile, you probably could have transferred last year when more than half of the teachers left in a 'GTMO only' transfer round.
I do get down sometimes when Island Fever takes hold. In almost 3 years, I've only left 4 times. I wish the flight schedule worked better with my work schedule, and I really wish we could Space A on holidays. It's just too inconvenient and expensive to get away. We left for a few days last January and it made ALL the difference! Sometimes you have to get away from here to appreciate it. Six months after writing this, we left for almost the entire summer, and it makes the little things that seem to be big things when you spend 10 months at a stretch here become little things once again. :)
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